RE: Badge engineering is alive and well - despite what they say...
In my opinion, sadly everything comes down to cost.
The plans above will in theory save money by reducing manufacturing costs. The reason for the 'in theory' part is that if of course the products aren't desirable then they wont sell, and it is the start of a downard spiral......
The business I worked for (selling TVs, HiFis etc.) shut down in 2002 after some 50 years of trade.
The reason was simple - we needed between 1% to 2% more profit per year. No one was prepared to pay an extra couple of quid for their video recorder, or a tenner for their TV - so we sold them cheaply, yet still gave a very high level of service.
Having spoken to many of my old customers, they all complain bitterly about the demise of Kelleys, and the fact that the current mulitples offer no service, have no knowledge, and how they wished Kelleys would come back, although they still no doubt wouldn't want to pay for any form of service!
The car trade surely is no different?
Would it really matter if a £25,000 - V70 actually cost £25,500 and yet remained a true Volvo? or does everyone want a £25K V70 which is basically a Ford with a Volvo badge stuck on it.
As always, I suspect the Directors of the manufacturers will make their decisions on what they percieve the public actually want - they will still sell their cars - and then pat themselves on the back for having made the right decision, and take suitable bonuses! (In fairness there is no way they can actually tell if they would have made more money by adopting a different approach)
If further proof was needed - look at the number of country pubs selling good home cooked food, which have been taken over/bought by the large chains with their mass produced limp vegetables etc. (Thankfully the one where Thames Valley meet is still independent!)
Although I genuinely believe the above, I am probably being hypocritical as like most people I too always want a cheap price!
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